bloviatrix

My first food memories are from age 3. We went to England for the summer, and I disctinctly remember eating chicken soup with noodles at Blooms, which was a kosher restaurant near our hotel. Later on the trip we stayed at old estate which had been converted to hotel where I had my first Smarties. I loved those things. I highly doubt I had ever eaten M&Ms up to that point, so I thought all the colors were neat. The other distinct food memory from a specific time in my life was when I was 17 and living in Jerusalem. For some reason, I had a craving for lox, and it wasn't available in Israel, so my parents brought me a vacuum-packed lox when they came to visit. Unfortunately, they didn't bring any bagels to go with. But that lox was like heaven. Hillvalley, I also have a deli story from sleep away. One of my bunkmates received a salami from Schmulke Bernsteins on visiting day. The salami had a loop of string hanging from the end, so E decided to hang the salami from a nail in the rafters and let the salami "age." Four weeks later, the night before camp ended, she took the salami down. All the fat had migrated to the outside. And at 3 in morning we all sat around eating "aged" salami sandwiches using bread and mustard we had stolen from the dining room.

Toasted sesame oil, soy sauce and ginger

Pan, you can find zhug at some of the kosher stores. I think Fairway also carries it.

I wish smell of garlic didn't seep through the skin after eating it. And it would be pretty nice not smell "liquored up" after drinking.

I might join in on occasion. Maybe even for the attempt at challah. Make sure to make the recipe for the chocolate chunk cookies with coffee and dried apricots. I normally make it as bar cookies and they're really quite rich.

For everyday EVOO I use the Fairway house label. If I just want plain OO I go with Bertolli. But I also keep canola and peanut oil for certain things.

Replaced crushed tomatoes (32oz) with 15 or 16oz of tomato sauce. I thought I had it [reasonably] covered. I have a feeling that the combination of tomato sauce and proscuitto is what made the sauce too salty. (Can someone confirm the proscuitto? I've never eaten it due to kashrut)

I'm having "one of those days". to put it mildly, it's a good thing my head's attached to my body, because I'd lose it otherwise. Anyway, I mis-read your announcement as if you were pre-taping the interview this morning for tomorrow. I think I need a nap.

So, how did it go? Are there any suprises in store? As of now, it looks like I'll be home tomorrow afternoon. Can't wait to watch.

Whitefish, scallions, and lemon The classic mirepoix: onion, carrots, celery

What happens if you eat an apple with the peel removed? Do you still get the urge to cough?

One of my friends grew up with a guy who went on to the NBA. The guy grew up in an upper-middle class family, travelled a lot as a kid, and had a college diploma. He would constantly complain about his team mates and how all they wanted to do was stay in their hotel rooms reading comic books and playing video games or cards. He wanted to check out museums, historic sights, good restaurants. But they all looked at him like he had a second head growing out off his body. And being a 7 foot white guy, there's no way you can't draw attention to yourself.

You think your mom is misguided? My mil thought chopped liver contained mayonaise. We're still shaking our heads over that one.

Collector's item. I have also secreted away two bars of Rokeach kosher dish soap, one lettered in orangish-pink, the other in sky-blue, to keep milchig and fleishig from intermarrying.. I think you can still find it in some stores. Particularly around Boro Park. Being that I grew up in an era of kosher dish washing liquid and color coded sponges, it was until about 5 years ago that I realized that the soap came in red and blue to differentiate it. But why no green for parve? Years ago, I had to deliver a peckalach of kosher soap to a friend's daughter in Jerusalem. I could never figure out why of all things, that was what she requested from her mom. Like you can't find kosher soap in Israel. The still sell Nyafat as well. Both plain and onion flavored. I've seen it in the kosher aisle at Shop-Rite. That stuff looks nasty.

My last trip there I found some really good pretzels from Israel - which I definitely wasn't expecting to find.

I'm dizzy after that tour. Carry on.....

In my family, ice box cake is layers of graham crackers and chocolate pudding.

We went through the planning process of a kitchen renovation several years ago (it never happened, but that's another story). Anyway, our designer suggested we use Amtico which makes vinyl flooring. Her experience was that it's comfortable for long-term standing and easy to clean. The selection of colors and styles is absolutely overwhelming - we spent several hours in the showroom looking at choices and figuring what would work best in our space.

I just spewed scone all over my keyboard. That's really classic.

Wow!! Everything looks amazing. Thanks for providing a vicarious thrill.

I forgot another quasi new place - Piece of Cake on Lex, it's diagonally across the street from the 92nd st Y heading south). They're a bakery, but they also serve food. The place has been around for awhile, but just recently received supervision. I've had "snacks" there, no real food. The chocolate sour cream pound cake was outrageously rich. And they have really good chocolate chunk cookies. Nice looking and tasting cupcakes according to my friend A. It's convenient to the Y if you want some coffee beforehand.

Box Tree is on E. 49th btw 2nd and 3rd. I agree about the service charge. We would have given more than 18% if it hadn't been tacked. There was room for an additional tip, but we felt that one of the few mis-steps of the evening was that no where did they alert to the fact that they add a service charge. Our bill was slightly over $200. I ordered two glasses of wine. Blovie wasn't drinking that night. Il Patrizio is on 63rd just east of 3rd Ave. Apps topped out at $10. Pastas were no more than $18 and fish probably $25. To be honest, I wasn't paying much attention to prices but they're in line with the prices at other dairy places of its ilk.

In the past two weeks, Blovie and I have eaten out twice. New Year's Eve we went to Il Patrizio which is dairy Italian. It's owned by the same people who own Haikara. I hadn't been there in several years since my last experience was pretty awful. But they've completely changed their menu and they're now making their own pastas. The food was actually pretty good. I had deep-fried artichokes as an appetizer and a papperdelle with wild mushrooms for a main. At this point I can't remember what everyone else ordered, but I tried two other appetizers and one other main. For dessert, Blovie and I split the ricottta cheesecake, which was light and lemony. This past week we finally got to The Box Tree, which is now the fanciest and most upscale kosher place in NY. Basically, they took the old Box Tree, which had years of labor troubles, and kashered the kitchen. They made no changes to the dining rooms. It's a lovely, elegant, old world place. There are less than 100 seats, but they're further divided into many small dining rooms, each with no more than 6 tables, for a very intimate feel. After our meal, the maitre d' offered to take us on a tour of the dining rooms. We had eaten in the Tiffany room, which has two stained glass windows made by L.C. Tiffany and a gold leaf ceiling. The bar area and upstairs are meant to feel like a belle epoque treehouse. And one room is a miniature of the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. When inside the restaurant, you forget that the bustling streets of NY are just outside. It's really like another world. The service was excellent. But my one complaint is that they tacked on a service charge of 18% which wasn't stated anywhere. The food was kind of old fashioned. I hoped that maybe the menu would have some interesting dishes, but they stuck with the duck l'orange, dover sole, steak au poivre, etc. I hope that as time goes on, the menu will be further expanded. For appetizers I ordered the salmon and tuna tatare with guacamole, Blovie ordered the sweetbreads. Both were good. I particularly liked the presentation of the sweetbreads as they plated them at the table out of a copper saucier. For mains, I had the duck l'orange on bok choy. I liked the contrast of the rich, sweet duck and the bitterness of the greens. Blovie went with the steak au poivre which came perfectly cooked - nice and rare. Unlike many kosher places, they have a PC on staff. Blovie has a molten chocolate cake with vanilla "ice cream" - he didn't let me try any. I ordered the beingets and fritters. The beingets were flavored with orange blossom water. They were light. And there were two types of fritters - banana and pineapple. As an accompaniment was pineapple sorbet. This is place that we will go to for special occasions. I hope to dine at The Branch, which has more casual dining in the bar area for lunch. Some of their offerings look yummy. For those of you who entertain, this is a good place to take people who keep kosher. Many of the patrons were in mixed groups.

Why on earth do you have that stuff?

I think alcohol has no place at business events particularly when clients are involved. I base this on my own experiences. The two that stick out most vividly are: Event 1: Business lunch. Me and a colleague were hosting. My co-worker drank an enormous amount and started telling very inappropriate stories. This led to him asking people personal questions such what type of underwear did they wear. At the end of the 4 hour lunch, the drinks portion of the bill was more than twice the food. And my colleague kissed me on lips without my consent. Event 2: Holiday party. A co-worker drank more than he could handle and vomited into the lap of client. It was disgusting and embarrassing. In both cases the need to go into crisis mode was a direct result of drinking. The perpetrators were oblivious to the problems they caused and were completely unapologetic. (The guy who kissed me had the nerve to tell me I should "lighten up.") As such, my rule of thumb is to stick with iced tea. This way I have a drink, but I'm in total control all times.